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Properly South Florida
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    • History ErasedSome history doesn’t survive on purpose. This category documents the stories, places, and communities that have been removed from the official record, by policy, by politics, by neglect, or by design. Where original photographs, documents, and archives have been destroyed, suppressed, or made inaccessible, Properly South Florida uses AI-generated illustrations to reconstruct what was lost and make the record visible again. Every AI-generated image in this category is labeled as such. The absence of documentation is part of the story.
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Foundations & Folklore

The real bones of South Florida.
Early settlement, development, prohibition, corruption, booms, busts, and the quiet deals that shaped everything.

Historical portrait of Bernard Romans, the 18th-century surveyor and cartographer known for mapping the Florida coast."

The 4th of July That Florida Straight Up Refused to Celebrate

2026-07-04
Foundations & FolkloreHistory Erased
By: John Payne
On: July 4, 2026

Back in 1776, the land that would become South Florida wasn’t fighting for independence. In fact, our state capital was literally setting the Founding Fathers on fire.
Continue Reading

1732_Herman_Moll_Map_of_the_West_Indies_and_Caribbean_-_Geographicus_-_WestIndies-moll-1732

The Pirate Anchorage: Fort Lauderdale’s Most Repeated Lie (That Might Be True)

2026-05-29
Foundations & FolkloreMyths, Legends & RumorsPirates, Wreckers & River Men
By: John Payne
On: May 29, 2026

Local legend says pirates anchored off what is now Fort Lauderdale Beach. We investigated the folklore, and found coordinates, oral histories, and no definitive answer.Continue Reading

Rumrunners & River Kings: How Prohibition Put Broward on the Map

2026-02-01
Foundations & FolkloreSmugglers Coast
By: John Payne
On: February 1, 2026

Prohibition didn’t make Americans stop drinking.It made them better planners. When the Volstead Act went into effect in 1920, Washington imagined a country sobering up out of respect for the law. South Florida imagined supply chains. You don’t ban a habit. You reroute it. And Broward County, quietly, was alreadyContinue Reading

The New River Knows Things: How Water Shaped Power in Fort Lauderdale

2026-01-28
Foundations & Folklore
By: John Payne
On: January 28, 2026

If you want to understand Fort Lauderdale, don’t start with the skyline.Look down. Before the towers, before the drawbridges learned their choreography, before anyone thought “waterfront” meant brunch, the river was already making decisions. The New River didn’t wait for permission. It didn’t follow a polite, linear plan. It bent,Continue Reading

Early 1900s New River waterfront in Fort Lauderdale

Founding Rumors: Why Fort Lauderdale Was Built on Whispers

2026-01-28
Foundations & Folklore
By: John Payne
On: January 28, 2026

Every city has a founding myth.Fort Lauderdale has a founding rumor. Not the kind involving buried treasure or noble pioneers shaking hands at sunset. This one is quieter. Less ceremonial. It sounds like a boat idling just out of sight, a ledger that never quite balances, a shrug followed byContinue Reading

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